The Official Blog of the Independent Community of Educators, a caucus of the United Federation of Teachers

Sunday, November 09, 2008

Letter from Marjorie Stamberg and John Powers to UFT President Randi Weingarten and and Executive Board Members

We have been informed that the November 24 Rally to Defend ATRs is now to be officially a "candlelight vigil." We strongly object to this change. The motion passed at the UFT delegate assembly October 15 said that "the UFT will organize a mass citywide rally to show our unity and strength." Instead of a show of strength, this turns it into a toothless gesture of "bearing witness" or silently standing by and observing as a travesty is taking place.

Furthermore, we were not consulted on this change, which was made without our knowledge, despite assurances from Randi Weingarten and Michael Mulgrew that we would be included in the planning. The first we heard of this was in a changed rally leaflet we received this morning.

A candlelight vigil is a silent "protest at the suffering of some marginalized group of people, or in memory of lives lost to some disease, disaster, massacre or other tragedy."

We want to make precisely the opposite point -- that ATR teachers are not marginalized, that we stand by them, and the UFT will fight to ensure that they do not become "lost lives," a "massacre," a "disaster" or other "tragedy." We can "bear witness" all we want, but it won't stop Joel Klein from trying to drive out our colleagues. And it won't stop the likes of the New York Post from vilifying them and our union.

We will continue to plan for a mass citywide rally as "a show of our unity and strength" as the motion called for. I think many teachers will feel as we do that we need strong powerful action, and will not stand by in silence.

In the words of Joe Hill, the famous labor organizer, "Don't Mourn For Me--Organize!"

That is what we will continue to do and we encourage the UFT leadership to reconsider its plan.

8 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I agree 100% with Marjorie and John. Now is the time to let the DOE know that we will not accept this situation. We are not mourning. Nobody has died. We are not going to take a defensive position; instead, we must be on the attack and let Tweed know that we will not accept the firing and unacceptable treatment of our union brothers and sisters. This is an issue that is extremely important. Any UFT member can become an ATR in an instant in the current climate of school closures, charter school takeovers and ongoing harassment and attacks, especially of senior (expensive and union savvy)teachers. Forget the candles! Let's scream and yell until all ATR's and Teaching Fellows are back at work in their own classrooms.

Remember when the UFT endorsed a "silent vigil" for Sean Bell, and the crowd IGNORED the vow of silence and instead let their voices be heard? We need to do the same for the ATRs. Randi is wrong. She is following a failed strategy.

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